Another year has come and gone. We are now beginning the year 2017, which not so very long ago seemed so very far away. It’s always a very interesting time during the first few days of the new year, as we look back over the year that has just passed and wonder what the new year will hold in store for us and how we should approach it. This pondering is nothing new. Talks, writings, meanderings, and poems contemplating the passage of time as the years continue to move on all exist. With this in mind, we decided to take a look back on some of the thoughts two of our founders had once upon a time on this very subject.
First, here are some thoughts from Mother Mary Joseph Rogers from her talk “Observance and Spirit of the New Year” given at a Conference in 1943:
“Whatever our viewpoint is […] we must remember that each of us has played her part in the events of the past year. […] These are serious thoughts, very important thoughts for us to ponder at the turn of the year. The community is what we make it, you and I together, you and I as individuals. It’s a solemn thought, and a challenging one. Let us meet the challenge and set our feet firmly on the path that will insure for this beloved community of ours the integrity of its discipline, the reality of its mission vocation and the beautiful satisfaction of its family spirit.”
And second, we would like to share with you some words from Bishop James A. Walsh’s “New Year’s Talk” in 1930:
“Even now, before we have clasped hands in wishing one another a happy New Year, the moments and hours have struck off since midnight, and we have already entered upon 1930. 1929 has gone back into history. It is a solemn moment as we look on the road we have travelled and peer into the future that is unknown. For us, as we look back, there is also much for gratification as we consider the events of the past year – in our own lives, and in that of the Society.
[…] My prayer is that God may strengthen each of us individually so that the Society may be stronger. The Society will be strong in the measure in which the individuals are strong. We have a signally blessed task before us. We have good hearts, keen perceptions, satisfying wills; we have courage; we have the confidence of thousands and tens of thousands from shore to shore in this land of ours, but above all things, we have the grace of God to strengthen us in this task which has been assigned to us.
[…] My prayer is that this first day of the New Year may be a day of strong resolutions for each of us, resolutions to give ourselves wholly to God in the fullness and generosity of our hearts, and we may be sure that, if we as individuals do this, the Society which we love, the movement to which we have consecrated our lives, will be blessed by God, and the accomplishments at the end of this year will be in every way satisfying.”
Wishing a very happy and healthy new year to everyone!
